TERRAFORMING TERRA
We discuss and comment on the role agriculture will play in the containment of the CO2 problem and address protocols for terraforming the planet Earth.
A model farm template is imagined as the central methodology. A broad range of timely science news and other topics of interest are commented on.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Bumblebee Collapse

In practice our insect population has been under general assault for
around sixty years and what should be noted is that we like to apply
product in and around our specific husbandry schedules. That means
two things. We bring in pollinators at targeted times and then
remove them allowing the second problem of aggressive application
outside the pollination window.

When that happens natural weeds will still draw in the wild
pollinators and the pollinators are facing a long open season on
themselves.

What is now missing is a population review of the real workhorses out
there which are rather small wasps. Bumble bees never were dense
enough on the ground to do the full job as would be expected. Anyone
who has picked berries in the field will observe ample small wasps at
work looking rather like miniature bees. And by the way, no one
wants a large population of bumble bees because they do sting and
sting hard.

The real take home is that it is becoming pressing to convert all
modern agriculture over to so called organic methods and to get used
to buying a better quality product. All these populations can
readily recover.

Not so long ago, it
was difficult to venture outdoors anywhere on the East Coast without
encountering therusty-patched bumblebee.

Named for a small
brown patch on their abdomens, these bumblebees have been pollinating
plum, apple, alfalfa, and other crops since long before farmers came
to rely so heavily on boxed and truckedEuropean honeybees.

Amid the plague of
colony collapse disorder (CCD), some farmers are looking back to
native pollinators like the rusty-patched bumblebee — as well
as hummingbirds and butterflies — to help ensure that the nation
can continue growing food. And in the process, they’re discovering
a stinging reality that researchers have known for more than a
decade: Many of North America’s once-plentiful bumblebee species
have all but disappeared.

The rusty-patched
bumblebee and yellow-banded bumblebee have been among the hardest-hit
in the nation’s east. In the west, the western bumblebee is in
similar trouble.

That’s bad news for
the country’s farmers and backyard gardeners, not to mention its
native wildlife. In California alone, researchers reported last
year in the journal Rangelands [sub. req.] that native
species pollinate more than one-third of the state’s crops, making
them a multi-billion-dollar contributor to its rural economy.

In another example,
bumblebees are so productive in canola farming that
Canadian researchers reported in 2006 that farmers could
maximize their profits by converting nearly one-third of their fields
to native meadowlands, which provide the highly valued insects with
habitat.

Research published
last year in the journal PNAS created some buzz around the
bad bumblebee news. Scientists discovered that the abundance of some
species has declined by as much as 96 percent over as little as two
decades; their geographic range also shrunk by up to 87 percent.

“There are several
species that have been in dramatic decline all across their ranges,”
said Mace Vaughan, pollinator conservation program director at the
Xerces Society, which seeks to protect native insects and other
invertebrates. “Many of these bumblebees were the most common bees
where they occurred, and today some are on the verge of extinction.”

Colony collapse
disorder is clearly a critical issue, but press coverage of the
honeybee calamity has almost entirely overshadowed the distressing
fate of their native cousins.

The near disappearance
of once-common bumblebees across the nation — and in other parts of
the world — doesn’t only jeopardize our food supply. It puts into
question the future of nearly every single wild plant that blooms.

Without blooming
plants, our species would quickly starve and vanish. If we managed
somehow to engineer our way out of extinction, we would be thrust
into a world dominated by ferns, mosses, and fungi. There is nothing
wrong with fern forests (they’re enchanting places), but fern
fronds, moss, and mushrooms do not make for a well-rounded diet.

Aware of these
potentially dire consequences, scientists are trying to root out the
cause of the dramatic decline in wild bees. But unlike honeybee
colony collapse (which has been tied to the widespread use of
neonicotine pesticides), the cause of the bumblebee apocalypse is
less clear.

“At this point, we
don’t have a smoking gun,” Vaughan said.

The conversion of
grazing lands, prairies, and other wildflower-rich habitats into new
neighborhoods, streets, and parking lots is considered a cause. Even
turning such land into vineyards or orchards takes a heavy toll,
because such monoculture farms fail to provide year-round sustenance
for the bees.

Pesticides are also
blamed. France this month joined Germany and Italy in restricting
the use of neonicotinoid-based pesticides. Scientists have discovered
that these poisons kill pollinators that suck at the nectar of
affected plants. Conservationists and beekeepers have urged the
United States and other nations to follow suit.

Yet another factor in
the die-offs appears to be parasites and fungus disease. Commercial
bumblebee colonies are increasingly being shipped around the nation,
particularly for use in greenhouses, and Vaughan and others fear that
they are spreading maladies to new habitats.

“They’re sent in
the mail and come in a cardboard box,” Vaughan said. “At the end
of the year the little colony dies and you throw away the
bumblebees.”

And of course there is
always the small matter of global warming, which is impacting
habitats everywhere.

“Climate change has
been a big issue that could potentially be affecting bumblebee
distributions,” said Sydney Cameron, an associate entomology
professor at the University of Illinois and lead author of last
year’s PNAS report.

Cameron said bumblebee
declines could probably not be explained by a single factor, but by
the combined effects of pathogens, pesticides, habitat loss, and
climate change.

“If you pick any one
of these variables, you probably won’t get very far,” says
Cameron. “But look at the combination.”

The bumblebee problem
has gotten worse since it was detected in the late 1990s, but Vaughan
says there is still a lot that can be done.

This is National
Pollinator Week, and the Xerces Society is encouraging folks to plant
bumblebee-friendly gardens and take other steps to help give the
six-legged critters a leg up (or three). Even a window planter box
can provide them with nutritious fodder.

“If every house had
a nice plot with some good wildflowers for native bees then that
would have a huge impact,” Vaughan said.

While honeybees live
in large hives and can survive for years, most smaller bumblebee
colonies die off at the end of every year. Young bumblebee queens
mate in the fall and then hibernate underground in winter, emerging
in the spring to start a new colony in a small dark place, such as a
hole in a tree. (Hollowed-out wood, terra-cotta pots, bundles of
bamboo, or small birdhouses also work). This fact sheet[PDF]
produced by the Xerces Society includes instructions and suggestions
for creating your own.

About Me

Jan 2015 - 3 Mil Pg Views, March 2013 - Posted my paper introducing CLOUD COSMOLOGY & NEUTRAL NEUTRINO rigorously described, September 2010 I am pleased to report that my essay titled A NEW METRIC WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSICS AND SOLVING CERTAIN HIGHER ORDERED DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS' has been published by Physics Essays published by the American Institute of Physics and appeared in their June 2010 quarterly.
40 years ago I took an honors degree in applied mathematics from the University of Waterloo. My interest was Relativity and my last year there saw me complete a 900 level course under Hanno Rund on his work in relativity,as well as differential geometry(pure math) and of course analysis. I continued researching new ideas and knowledge since that time and I have prepared a book for publication titled 'Paradigms Shift'.
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